Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

From his tables, P. Cotte draws the following corollaries :

1. That heat diminishes as you recede from the equator towards the Poles.

2. That this diminution is fubject, in certain latitudes, to confiderable a nomalies which cannot be calculated; becaufe, ft, they are occafioned by the nature of the climate: thus, a part of N. America, which is in the fame latitude with Italy and the fouthern departments of France, is, notwith-, ftanding, colder than thofe countries. in which the medium heat is much greater. 2nd, Thefe anomalies depend on local fituation: thus the temperature of a mountain is colder than that of a plain: a moift country, covered with wood and untilled, is colder than one in a dry fituation, open and well cultivated: cold is lefs intenfe in the neighbourhood of the fea than in places fituated far in-land.

3. That it is therefore impoffible to establish an exact comparifon between the degrees of heat drawn from a theory founded on the difference of latitudes, and thofe refulting from ac tual obfervation.

4. That even the comparison between the temperature of two countries from actual obfervation will never be accurate, unlefs the obfervation's have been made in the fame years, and with inftruments that may be compared together and even fuppofing these two conditions complied with, very great differences may be oc3 D VOL. XIV. No. 83.

cafioned in one country by accidental meteors, fuch as fhowers of hail, or a tempeft, when no fuch accidents have taken place in the other.

5. That the laft column of the preeeding tables (that which contains the medium heat of the year) fhews that heat diminishes in proportion as the fun becomes more oblique, and that the central heat has very little effect on the diminution of the medium heat.

6. That the extremes of heat and cold are greater in proportion as you recede from the equator: thus in fummer the thermometer rifes almost as high, and fometimes higher, between the 50th and 60th degree of latitude, than it does under the line; while in winter, in thofe high latitudes, the liquor is conftantly under the freezing point during two or three months fucceffively, and not unfrequently de fcends 30° or more below Zero.

[We may here remark the most extraordinary instance of equality in the temperature of a country to be found in Father Cotte's Tables. At Surinam, the difference between the medium heat of January when it is least, and of October when it is higheft, does not amount to two degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer.]

7. That the climates of France and England, and a part of Germany, are leaft expofed to thofe extremes of heat and cold, which render other climates: infupportable.

8. That the tranfition from heat to cold, in September and November, is more fudden than that from cold to heat, from March to May.

Laitly; That the heat increases at first flowly, and afterwards more quickly, from January to May; after which it proceeds with lefs celerity in July: its diminution becomes more fenfible in Auguft and September; it is at its maximum in October and No. vember; goes on flowly from November to December, and arrives at its minimum in December and January.

Account

394

Account of an Effay in Dutch, by the late Peter Camper, an the natural differ ence of Features in perfons of various countries and ages; and on Beauty, as exhibited in ancient Sculpture and Engravings. Published by his Son.

THE

HE late Profeffor Camper was ter, the Profeffor gives us the hiftory well known as a perfon of an en- of his difcoveries; and traces the prolarged mind and accurate judgment; cefs by which he was firft tempted to rich in ideas, and indefatigable in doubt the fufficiency of the principles fcrutinizing their truth, by repeated already propofed, and by which he was experiments, before he admitted them afterward led to the difcovery of more as principles. He has alfo frequently certain data. He fays that, in copymanifefted a folicitude to apply his ing after the beft models of the great profeffional knowledge, as an anato mafters, and others, he obferved a very mift, to the ufeful or elegant purpofes great difference between the counteof life. His differtations on the per- nances expreffed in them, and in the nicious effects of that female harnefs, faces delineated by the moderns, withcalled Gays, and on the form of foes, out being able to afcertain in what prove the firft of thefe affertions; and particulars fo remarkable a difference the treatife before us demonftrates the confifted; and that, in employing the laft The profefed object of this pub- oval and triangle, according to the lication is to prove that the principal rules ufually eftablished, in modelling, rules laid down by the moft celebrated painting, or drawings from life, he painters and limners, are very defec- found it not only difficult, but impoftive; that they neither enable the ftu- fible, to finish a head to advantage. dent to delineate national characterif He farther obferves, that, in copying tics in the countenance, nor to imi- after the prints of Raphael, Pouffin, tate the beauties of ancient feulptors Titian, and Pietro Tefta, he was and artifts. He contends that the much more fatisfied than with the obfervations of the Abbé Winckel fineft pieces of Rubens or Van Dyck, man, concerning ideal beauty, are not in which the principles eftabl fhed by well founded; and he profeffes to have Albert Durer, and the imperfection difcovered, in what that fpecies of of the oval, are very confpicuous. By beauty really confifts. It is in confe- frequently modelling in clay, after the quence of the imperfection of rules, mett beautiful antique heads, the Prohe obferves, that men of eminence feffor discovered that Alb. Durer, have been fo defective in their por viewing the object with both his eyes, traits of national characters; thus, in had made them all too broad; and al the paintings of De Wit, the chief fo that a painter, in order to fucceed, fignature of a Jew is a long beard; muft not only be practifed in drawing, and Guido Reni, C. Marat, Rubens, but also in modelling, that he may ob and others, have given no other cha racteristic of Moors, than a black complexion. He denies the propriety of making either the oval, as is the niot common method, or the triangle, as fome artills have propofed, as the foundation of portraits to be taken in profile; and he propofes more certain principles in their place.

Such are the general outlines of the work. In an introductory chap

tain juft ideas of the real appearance of objects of every kind. A know. ledge of optics is alfo requifite; as the Profeffor attempted to demonftrate in an inaugural differtation published in 1746, on the conftruction of the eye, and on the laws of vifion. He tells us, moreover, that when he was ap pointed Profeffor of Anatomy in the public college at Amfterdani, he was more firmly convinced, in his defcrip

T

tions of, and comparifous between, different bodies of various ages, that the oval was not adapted to an accurate and expeditious sketch of the fea

tures.

I fawed (fays he) feveral heads, both of men and of animals, perpendicularly through the centre, with a view to this object; and I clearly perceived that the cavity deftined to contain the brains was, in general, very regular, but that the polition of the upper and lower jaw was the natural caufe of the most astonishing differences. I bave followed this method with quadrupeds, down to fh, in pur fuit of the fame idea. There appear ances gave me much infight into the real difference of features, from infancy up to the maft advanced age; though I still continued embarraffed to determine how the Greeks, from the earliest period, thould be able to give an extraordinary and majestic mien to their figures, which no head was ever feen to poffefs. Having obferved perfons of different nations, with more attention, I conceived that remarkable differences arofe from the breadth of faces, and from the fquarenefs of the under jaw; and this idea was confirmed by contemplating a confiderable number of crania of different nations, that were afterward collected by me, or accurately copied. I have in this collection exclufively of our own and of neighbouring nations, the head of a young English negree, and one of a more advanced age; the head of a female Hottentot, of a young native of Madagascar, of an inhabitant of Mogol, of a Chinese, of a Celebean, and finally of a Calmuk."

He informs us alfo, that, by comparing the head of a Negroe with that of a Calaink, thefe with an European, and placing them on a level with the head of an ape, he difcovered that the direction of the lines, extending from the forehead to the upper lip, indicated the difference in national counte dances; and clearly pointed out the

caufe of the fimilarity between the ne-. groe and the ape. By sketching fome

of these features on an horizontal line, he afcertained the linea facialis, the line of the countenance, with its different angles. Whenever this line was inclined forward, an antique was formed: when backward, a negroe; a greater inclination backward gave the ap pearance of an ape, a dog, &c.

This (fays he) was the foundation of the edifice. My fituation in Amfterdam afforded me numberleis opportunities of collecting the fkeletons of perfons of every age, from abortions, to the moft advanced years. In comparing thefe, my thoughts were directed toward the natural changes that took place from the gradual growth of the parts in youth, to the decays of age, and the moft certain, methods of reprefenting thefe. This was the fecond stage of iny building and to form a third, I affiduously inquired which was the line that the andients had adopted in the execution of their most complete works. Finally, by accurately examining into the utility of the oval or triangle, in delineating human heads, and by attending to and comparing together different heads that had been fawed through, with the relative fituations of the maxilla, I difcovered a new and fimple manner of delineating the heads of men, or brute animals, with much greater accuracy."

The above difcoveries and obfervations gave birth to the treatife under confideration, in which the following order is obferved. In the first part Profellor Camper makes tome remarks on the natural difference in features among the principal inhabitants of the globe; refutes the opinions of ancient writers concerning the causes of thefe; advances feveral philofophical fpeculations refpecting the difference of countenance in profile in apes, ou rangs, negroes, and others, up to the antique; traces the changes that ne ceffarily flow from a difference in the 3 D 2

linea

linea facialis; and illuftrates his principles, by exhibiting sketches of their characteristic features of different na tions, and by giving a philofophical explanation of the fame. In the fecond part, he treats of the form of the heads of children and those of aged perfons viewed in profile, and in front. The third part treats of beauty, and of the proportions requifite to conftitute beauty. The fourth and laft part relates to the first principles of drawing, and explains in what cafes the oval and triangle may be employed; and where they are defective, he propofes his more perfect method.

head, which the profeffor terms the linea facialis, and obferve in what degree it interfects the upper part of the frame; as this will give one characteriftic, and the fituation of the maxillæ, refpecting the perpendicular fide of the frame, another. For example, the linea facialis of the ourang will interfect the horizontal line at 58; that of the negro, at 70; that of the European, at 80 or 90; while, in the Grecian antique, the facial line will project ten degrees beyond the limits of the frame,, forming an angle in a different direction. In the ape, the Negro, and the Calmuk, the maxilla project in various proportions beyond a particular line drawn from the lower part of the forehead to the chin: in the European, the maxilla are on a line with the perpendicular; and in

According to this pofition of the linea facialis, are every other part of the head, the pofition of the eyes, of the mouth, ears, &c. regulated. This he proves by various examples.

As this work is written for the ́fcientific artist alone, the Profeffor has preferred the more abftruse and fcientific method. He attempts to illustrate and demonftrate his principles by the explanation of a large number of the antique, they recede within it. sketches given in feveral plates. Such rigid attention is paid to geometrical lines, and proportions, that this mode is preferred in feveral inftances, where verbal explanations would have been equally convincing, and infinitely more adapted to a fubject of tafte. This method renders it impracticable for us to do juftice to the author's principles, as they could not be completely illuftrated without the aid of figures. We fhall endeavour to firip fuch parts of their scientific garb, as conftitute the principal importance of the publica tion, that the man of tatte may form fome ideas of it.

In the Profeffor's inquiry into the principles of tafte, the leading idea is, that the beauty in the proportions given by the ancients to their figures, arifes from their paying greater attention to the laws of optics, than to the ufual proportions of nature. His reafonings on this fubject are ingenious and conclufive: but as they are founded on geometrical proportions, and require figures to illuftrate and explain the doctrine, no extracts could be fatisfactory. We must alfo refer the inquifitive reader to the treatife itself, for a clear idea of the method adopted by the Profeffor, to sketch heads in profile with greater accuracy; and we must content ourselves with announcing the leading principle.

The general dodrine is, that the difference in form and caft of countenance proceeds from the relation which the cranium is found to bear to the direction of an horizontal and a perpendicular line. Let us fuppofe a frame of wood fimilar to that of a picture, to be made perfectly fquare and that the upper part be graduated into go M. Camper relates, that the attendegrees, proceeding from the right to tion which he was obliged to pay to the left. Let the cranium, or head, the fubject in the anatomical line, and be placed in the centre of this frame. the obfervations which he had made Draw an imaginary line from the low-relative to the original shape of a child's er part of the upper lip to the fore- head, and the fubfequent growth of

the

« AnteriorContinuar »